Buffalo's 802.11n WiFi dongle: small in size, tiny in price
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jan 15th 2009 3:59AM
posted Jan 15th 2009 3:59AM
[Via Akihabara News]
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Genius.
Me wants.
Thats some nice usb pron
the top view reminds me a lot of a chicklets gum candy
Bunging? Did you mean banging?
Sweet looking Dongle... it's almost as small as the receiver for my Logitech Nano VX wireless mouse.
I thought the same thing! I love that mouse. I never have to disconnect the receiver from my laptop. Awesomeness.
Great!! I'll probably recommend it to my friends who have old lappys..
That's actually really cool! I'd be interested to see some real world speed benchmarks, especially considering how cheap that is.
I'm concerned about the reception, seeing the antenna is close to non-existing..
My thoughts exactly. I imagine that it wouldn't be brought to market (by Buffalo, at least) if it didn't have decent reception, so I'm sure it will be acceptable.
Oh yeah, male and female!
Oh crap, I forgot: I was talking about USB's.
i would totally consider getting this if its a linux friendly chipset
Yes, you and the other %0.01 of the world's computer market. Buffalo is probably hammering out those Linux drivers right now.
Yeah, Linux market share is actually about two orders of magnitude more than that. Plus, with Linux netbooks on the scene and, in general, growing Linux presence, it'd be a good marketting decision to be cross-platform, where possible.
Since they're hardware manufacturers, it'd really make the most sense to just open-source as much of their drivers as possible, anyway. Do that, and Linux hackers can much more easily port them over, without that reverse-engineering or ndiswrapper nonsense. It's not like they're selling the drivers, right?
carlton, dont feed the trolls
And, very importantly, finally Buffalo can sell wireless stuff in the US again.
now....If only it had pass-through capability so you wouldn't 'loose' the port.
that... would kick ASCII
yesterdays news,
Before Buffalo, planex had a similar size product (GW-USMicroN) and
osx compatible.
OSX compatible obviously the most important feature considering my G3 imac (which is now ancient) has a wireless card built in.
Every intel mac so far has had N.
Major4Play: Not entirely true - the absolute first intel macs had G chipsets and then N-disabled chipsets. You are correct though in the fact that Apple has had at least a built in wifi adapter standard longer than most other laptops.
My intel mac mini disagrees
wow.. the size and price seems to be in proportion, unlike other tiny sky priced ones!
but a test of throughput and signal quality will only tell the actual usefulness. Also imagine, if the manual says you need to be within 10ft of the wifi router!!
It'll not be far when someone stuffs an 11n receiver in the usb plug itself, by that time hope we would have got the 11n standard out of draft LOL!
Nothing new here, Planex released the same sized adapter a couple of months ago, that isn't vaperware, just bought one the other week.
http://www.planex.co.jp/product/wireless/gw-usmicron/
Besides Buffalo's AOSS is crap, yes it makes it easy to set-up an insecure WEP connection, but that doesn't help the user understand that they should be using WPA2.
Anyway best advice: Get a Mac and you don't have to worry about buying fugly little USB adapters to connect to your WLAN.
I half expected your 'best advice' to be "Go Vegan!"
Actually, the best advice I choose to offer is:
Buy a well speced windows laptop, with an extra battery, toss in an internal Blu-Ray drive, with HDMI out, since my 46" Toshiba LCD has never heard of display port. Then, purchase this fine dongle. Last step- spend the money I saved by not buying a MBP and get a nice steak dinner to celebrate my new purchase.
But anyway, that's the best advice I can offer. And since advice is a subjective opinion based on individual situations, can there really be "best" advice?
If anyone's interesting in getting one, you can leave a message on my site in the comments section:
Thanks for the news all (inc. GoVegan).
http://portablemonkey.com/article/micro-80211n-usb-adapters-hit-japan/
....and terrible reception.
This looks like a great device. Small enough so it doesn't break off like other usb devices out there. Great design.
Does it work on the xbox 360? If so, this thing will sale like hotcakes.
i was wondering that myself...
Now how 'bout an HDMI version of this?!
"Now how 'bout an HDMI version of this?!"
Is that a joke?
I was just thinking it would be sweet to have an HDMI connection (instead of USB) carry the wifi. That way HDTVs could get network capability. Obviously a browser would then be needed...soooo...
Wow. Wrong on so many levels.
Most likely tiny in performance too.
I love the comments that its a great price and size. If only they didnt realize what a crap company buffalo is in this regard.
Concept, a USB dongle that doesnt take up a usb slot,
it goes in the usb, then has a usb socket, like a 1x usb replicator with a built in wifi...?
investment anyone?
True if it's tiny enough you don't have the effect that it breaks or breaks the port it's plugged into.
Perhaps some lame-ass company like MS or apple or rambus or google even locked the idea up in a patent though, just to be annoying.
A bit like the way 3COM patented the pop-out antenna on PCMCIA WiFi cards, leaving everyone else to make them with fixed antennae which stuck out an inch. They then sold them for a 400% premium, the bastards. It certainly put me off buying 3COM products.
Sometimes patents really do stifle progress.
http://www.buffalotech.com/press/releases/buffalo-announces-wireless-lineup/
According to the link above, the price for the WLI-UC-GN will be about $59.99 and not $24. Suddenly it doesn't seem like such a great deal...
If this were dual-band, I'd be all over it.
amazing how simple it is for some to get amazed by a USB plug in, i cant blame them!!! I like it, really nice
I would like to know ifthis would work with my popcorn hour A110 bc the wn-100 totally sux. It would also b nice if it works with Xbox 360, ps3, and wii
...and microscopic in reception.
Nice to know after two years of litigation Buffalo will once again be able to sell WiFi devices in the USA.
A mere 2,100 Yen ($24)... inflation much?